Workshops Help Employers Source, Recruit, Onboard and Retain Immigrant Talent

Are blind spots preventing you — and your organization — from tapping into top global talent?

A group of HR professionals were surprised to see their own hidden biases were preventing them from spotting quality candidates when they reviewed mock resumes from skilled immigrants in a recent workshop piloted by the Immigrant Employment Council of BC (IEC-BC) and BC HMRA.

"It hit home how, as recruiters and prospective employers, by virtue of the limited time afforded to do resume screens, how we make quick judgments on what and how information is presented with little, if any, understanding of the cultural forces in play," one participant commented after the exercise.

The resume review exercise was part of a pilot workshop on "Sourcing and Recruiting Immigrant Talent", developed by BC HMRA and IEC-BC.  A second workshop, "Onboarding and Retaining Immigrant Talent" workshop was also jointly produced.

“When we conducted employer consultations across the province in 2011, we heard very clearly that employers are already convinced by the business case of hiring immigrant talent,” said IEC-BC Executive Director, Kelly Pollack. “Employers in general and HR practitioners know BC is facing an unprecedented skill shortage and recognize new Canadians as a pool of talent. But employers told us what they need are tools to help them assess the potential value of immigrant candidates for their companies.”

BC HRMA’s manager of Professional Development, Kyla Nicholson agrees. "That's why we were so pleased to have the opportunity to work with IEC-BC to develop these employer resources. We know our membership is actively looking for this kind of material."

Both workshops use real world examples and case studies from the BC market to support HR practitioners in understanding how to overcome common challenges in recruiting skilled immigrants and in finding the strategies that will work for their organization. Reviews of the initial workshops were enthusiastic.

"[We got]... convincing arguments/materials to take back to some of our resistant managers," one respondent commented on the workshop evaluation. "I definitely have a broader understanding of how to bring landed immigrants into the company. The resources provided were invaluable."

Given the positive response to the workshops, BC HMRA has added "Sourcing and Recruiting Immigrant Talent" workshop to their fall workshop series. For more information on the workshops contact Javier Ojer, Manager, Immigrant Employment Council of BC at javier.ojer@iecbc.ca.